Wunderground launches new Local Climate Change section
In honor of Earth Day on Sunday, wunderground has launched a new Climate Change Center, which gives people resources to understand how the climate is changing both globally and in their local neighborhoods. I am particularly pleased with our Local Climate Change feature, which allows one to see how temperature and precipitation have changed over the past 100+ years at the nearest station with a long period of measurements. Predictions from climate models on what the next 100 years may bring are overlaid for each station. Data for most U.S. stations goes back to 1895; we have data for a few stations in Europe that extend back to the 1700s. Berlin has the longest period of record in this database, with data back to 1702.
Figure 1. Screenshot of the Local Climate Change page for Washington, DC. Measured temperatures since 1820 are shown in grey. By clicking on the "Show post-1900 trend:" box, we see that the trend since 1900 has been for an increase in temperature of 1.5°C (2.7°F) per century. Moving the thin vertical red line over the image using the mouse shows that the warmest year on record in Washington D.C. was 1991. Predictions for a future with low emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide are shown in yellow; the high emissions prediction is shown in red. Separate tabs are available to examine precipitation and snow.
Skeptical?
Also included in the new Climate Change Center is a section addressing the common skeptical arguments made against climate change. We offer three levels of explanation. The "Basic" level is the default, but one can also see more technical in-depth discussions by clicking on the "See All Explanation Levels" link. The material was developed by physicist John Cook for his excellent skepticalscience.com web site, which is widely referenced in the climate science communication community.
Video 1. I'm featured in this video on extreme weather and climate change done by veteran videographer Peter Sinclair for the Yale forum on Climate Change and the Media this month. I'm also featured in Part 1 of this series. Our new Climate Change Center has a section for climate change videos, which includes a twice-monthly feature from GreenTV detailing the world's notable wild weather events of the past two weeks.
Earth: the Operator's Manual airs Sunday night
Penn State climate scientist Dr. Richard Alley hosts parts II and III of Earth: the Operator's Manual on PBS beginning at 7pm Sunday, April 22--Earth Day. Part I of this excellent series aired in April 2011. The series gives an overview of climate change, but primarily focuses on what we can do to help slow down climate change though smart energy choices. Dr. Alley, a registered Republican, geologist, and former oil company employee, is the Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at the Pennsylvania State University, and one of the most respected and widely published world experts on climate change. Dr. Alley has testified before Congress on climate change issues, served as lead author of "Chapter 4: Observations: Changes in Snow, Ice and Frozen Ground" for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and is author of more than 170 peer-reviewed scientific articles on Earth's climate. He is also the author of a book I highly recommend--The Two Mile Time Machine, a superb account of Earth's climate history as deduced from the 2-mile long Greenland ice cores. Dr. Alley is an excellent and engaging speaker, and I highly recommend listening to his 45-minute keynote speech, "The Biggest Control Knob: CO2 in Earth's Climate History", given at the 2010 American Geophysical Union meeting, via this very watchable recording showing his slides as he speaks in one corner of the video. If you want to understand why scientists are so certain of the link between CO2 and Earth's climate, this is a must-see lecture.
Have a great weekend, everyone, and I'll be back Monday with a new post. I'd like to thank Wunderground meteorologist, Angela Fritz for spearheading the creating the new Climate Change Center; it's a product I'll be referring to frequently in the future, and one we'll be updating in the coming months with data on local sea level rise, fire risk, and drought.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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Maybe this'll dip far enough south to give u guys a bit of a shower...
Good night Baha
yea I was noticing that it didnt appear the line was making much progress in the last say 30 minutes
Nope, its not raining yet, I live a bit southwest of Clearwater Int'l the line looks like its slowing down and thickening, good news for us Pinellas County people!
This one: 1211
Yeah it looks like the southern half is feeding off the warmer moist flow and is getting deeper while slowing down, prepare for a late night soaker, that's for sure! Just what the drought ordered!
Yeah its cause the line is slowing down, which is good news, less severe and more rain, the cells are getting heavier and less windy. More like they were earlier out in the gulf.
I'm actually seeing twice as much lightning now as ever since the warnings expired, almost constant flashes, although much of it is cloud to cloud, seeing more and more CG as well.
Jed, watch out may be some hail headed your way. Can't be sure but the cell headed you way has a 30% chance of severe hail. Def poss based on the VIL.
I think everything on the southern half is probably going to stay as discrete cells. There's a lot of them forming though.
Upper left there I think global map takes you to this page to pick & choose.
Thank You Skyepony
Lightning/2000 v5.4.2 Summary (Sunday, April 22, 2012 at 12:26:29 AM EDT)
Since midnight (26.5 mins.):
Total strokes: 694 (avg. 26.2/min.)
Intracloud/Intercloud strokes: 326 - 47.0% (avg. 12.3/min.)
IC: 237 - 72.7% (avg. 8.9/min.)
-IC: 89 - 27.3% (avg. 3.4/min.)
Cloud to ground strokes: 367 - 52.9% (avg. 13.8/min.)
CG: 60 - 16.3% (avg. 2.3/min.)
-CG: 307 - 83.7% (avg. 11.6/min.)
Compact Intercloud Discharge: 0
Total flashes: 492 (avg. 18.6/min.)
Cloud to ground flashes: 242 (avg. 9.1/min.)
CG flashes: 52 (avg. 2.0/min.)
-CG flashes: 190 (avg. 7.2/min.)
Intercloud/Intracloud flashes: 250 (avg. 9.4/min.)
IC flashes: 178 (avg. 6.7/min.)
-IC flashes: 72 (avg. 2.7/min.)
Total nearby flashes: 0
Total noises: 68 (avg. 2.6/min., 8.9%)
Total energy: 825 (avg. 31.1/min., 119%, squelch = 3)
PedleyCA~ You're welcome.. Nexsat puts out some pretty images.
Yeah I was watching Bay News 9 and I think the cell might have dropped its hail core just a couple miles to my west if it had one, before hitting me, its just raining really hard with lots of lightning, again mostly cloud to cloud but its pretty cool so that expect, cold fronts never produce quite as much intense CG as our wet season sea breeze storms, but still a nice experience, I think I got a cloud burst right over me cause my rain gauge signal stopped and my street flooded a little, lol.
You've only seen hail twice in 16 years in Pinellas County.
Maybe the hail cores know that and avoid your location ;-)~
There might now be a big pile of "pea-sized" hail somewhere along East Bay Drive, a mile or two west of US 19.
water vapor
This was the largest I've ever seen in FL. Half dollar size in Ft. Myers almost a year ago. Did damage to my car.
Looks like a little squall line is headed to you
Just want to clarify I live in Ft. Myers. My handle is deceiving. I grew up in Charlotte so I picked that name several years ago.
000
FXUS62 KMFL 220411
AFDMFL
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIAMI FL
1210 AM EDT SUN APR 22 2012
...TORNADO WATCH 186 IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 AM EDT SUNDAY FOR SOUTH
FLORIDA...
.UPDATE...
EVENING PRODUCTS HAVE BEEN UPDATED FOR THE INCLUSION OF THE TORNADO
WATCH HEADLINE THROUGH 7 AM SUNDAY MORNING. STORMS HAVE BEGUN TO
DEVELOP OVER THE EASTERN GULF AND ALONG THE TAMPA COAST AS THE
POTENT UPPER LOW APPROACHES THE FLORIDA PENINSULA. ALTHOUGH THE
BEST THUNDERSTORM COVERAGE...BASED ON THE LATEST RADAR LOOP...WAS
STILL NORTH AND NORTHWEST OF OUR LOCAL AREA OFF OF TAMPA`S
COAST...SCATTERED TO NUMEROUS STORMS ARE EXPECTED TO BEGIN
DEVELOPING OFF OF THE NAPLES COAST OVER THE NEXT FEW HOURS. THESE
STORMS WILL BE FAST MOVING STORMS TRACKING NORTHEAST AND WILL BE
CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS UP TO AROUND 60-70 MPH...LARGE
HAIL AND TORNADOES.
Right as the line came through my area
You think a squall line will make it all the way over here?
It shows you just how strong dynamics are with system when you consider how low CAPE is tonight. This is probably the strongest thunderstorm I've had in a long time in such a cool and stable environment, it was only 64 with a dew point of 63 as the line came in and like 300 J/kg Cape. My gosh we would have had a terrible outbreak if we had say 4000 CAPE ahead this line that's coming through my area.
We sometimes get these big lows in winter but its weird to see this big cold core low in late April, especially because it was such a warm winter in Spring. Strange event.
I still haven't seen hail though, I have an atmospheric hail defense I think :)
Do you remember what time of year that was, or what month?
Just curious.
Be safe. Be sure to take pictures, but safely.
May 12, 2011
I think I called in the first warning here:
WARNING FOR THE STORM:
000
WUUS52 KTBW 122227
SVRTBW
FLC071-122300-
/O.NEW.KTBW.SV.W.0036.110512T2227Z-110512T2300Z/
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL
627 PM EDT THU MAY 12 2011
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN RUSKIN HAS ISSUED A
* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...
CENTRAL LEE COUNTY IN FLORIDA.
* UNTIL 700 PM EDT
* AT 625 PM EDT...TRAINED WEATHER SPOTTERS REPORTED A SEVERE
THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING QUARTER SIZE HAIL OR LARGER. THIS
STORM WAS LOCATED NEAR FORT MYERS VILLAS...OR 7 MILES SOUTHEAST OF
FORT MYERS...AND MOVING SOUTH AT 5 MPH.
* THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR...
FORT MYERS.
FORT MYERS VILLAS.
ESTERO.
THIS INCLUDES INTERSTATE 75 BETWEEN EXITS 123 AND 138.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
THIS STORM HAS A HISTORY OF PRODUCING DESTRUCTIVE WINDS AND LARGE
DAMAGING HAIL. SEEK SHELTER NOW INSIDE A STURDY STRUCTURE AND STAY
AWAY FROM WINDOWS.
&&
LAT...LON 2643 8189 2665 8186 2665 8169 2643 8169
TIME...MOT...LOC 2226Z 006DEG 5KT 2654 8179
$$
000
WWUS52 KTBW 122238
SVSTBW
SEVERE WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL
638 PM EDT THU MAY 12 2011
FLC071-122300-
/O.CON.KTBW.SV.W.0036.000000T0000Z-110512T2300Z/
LEE FL-
638 PM EDT THU MAY 12 2011
...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 700 PM EDT
FOR CENTRAL LEE COUNTY...
AT 634 PM EDT...DOPPLER RADAR CONTINUED TO INDICATE A SEVERE
THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING QUARTER SIZE HAIL. THIS STORM WAS
LOCATED NEAR SOUTHWEST INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT...OR 8 MILES SOUTHEAST
OF FORT MYERS...MOVING SOUTH AT 5 MPH.
THIS INCLUDES INTERSTATE 75 BETWEEN EXITS 123 AND 138.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
LARGE HAIL UP TO HALF DOLLAR SIZED HAS BEEN REPORTED WITH THIS
STORM. IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF THE STORM...TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION
TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY.
&&
LAT...LON 2643 8189 2665 8186 2665 8169 2643 8169
TIME...MOT...LOC 2238Z 006DEG 5KT 2652 8179
Not sure there will be an actual squall line in the deep south, more like discrete cells. At the pace these storms will be moving, absolutely they will make it.
Interesting that it was moving SOUTH at 5mph. Wonder what kind of weather caused that to happen?
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